Leading schools during a pandemic and beyond: Insights from principals in the Philippines

Abstract

The Philippines is one of very few countries in the world where schools have continuously remained closed since the coronavirus pandemic began in 2019. There is little known about how school principals face the challenges that arise from the pandemic, and the future goals for the new normal. The purpose of this article is to explore the school principals’ management practices, leadership styles, challenges encountered, and future goals in response to the pandemic in the context of Philippine schools. This study employed a qualitative research approach using an open-ended online survey with 52 school principals. Findings rendered a contextualisation of their school management practices, leadership styles, challenges encountered during the pandemic, and future goals for the new normal. This study contributes to the knowledge base on school leadership during the pandemic by providing unique insights into the Philippines.

Keywords

COVID-19 pandemic leadership styles management practices leadership in turbulent times

Introduction

The COVID-19 pandemic has devastated countries all over the world in terms of their economies and educational systems, which caused large-scale school closures because of the rising infectivity rate, and the lack of inoculations among school communities (Viner et al., 2020). A UNESCO report estimated that 1.5 billion students from over 165 countries were not able to attend school due to lockdowns, and efforts to curb the COVID-19 virus (UNESCO, 2020). Many problems resulted from the lockdowns, such as limited access to digital learning tools and the internet, and this led to students not learning effectively (Mathrani et al., 2021). Students also suffered from the psychosocial impact of COVID-19, such as acute panic, anxiety, obsessive behaviours, hoarding, paranoia and depression (Dubey et al., 2020).

As medical scientists continue their mission to find a cure for the COVID-19 virus, school leadership research embarks on a different challenge – to try to understand how school principals engage with students and teachers while still maintaining effective and efficient operation in schools, and to ensure that learning continues (Adams et al., 2021). School principals find themselves leading in a crisis, and in an unprecedented time. Teachers are forced to migrate their teaching to online platforms, which has impacted students in various ways, such as access, equity and quality of education (Sahlberg, 2020). Both principals and teachers are dealing with frustration, chaos and uncertainty (Adams and Muthiah, 2020). On top of that, the lack of information on the situation compels them to act swiftly but guided by foresight, while contemplating the options and consequences of their decisions (Harris, 2020).

While many countries have also implemented large-scale or countrywide school closures since March 2020 as an effort to decrease COVID-19 transmission, this pandemic has also brought with it the idea of a new normal, where school communities are challenged to adapt to uncertainty, and live day to day with unfolding events and circumstances. Whether at the national, regional or local school level, school closure is the practical response to high student infection rates in many countries (Viner et al., 2020). While other countries have taken the opportunity to resume in-person classes, the Philippines has lagged behind. It is one of the very few countries in the world where schools have continuously remained closed since the coronavirus pandemic began in 2019 (United Nations Children's Fund, 2022). This circumstance has forced principals to rely on virtual meetings to communicate with their stakeholders, and make decisions collaboratively while establishing various connections to stay informed about standard operating procedures (Gkoros and Bratitsis, 2022; Stone-Johnson and Miles Weiner, 2020). On the other hand, school principals are not trained to handle such crises, and they find themselves leading their schools into uncharted territory, having to make decisions, and deal with various levels of anxiety, frustration, and anger from the school community (Adams et al., 2021).

There is little known about how school principals face challenges that arise from the pandemic, and the future goals for the new normal. Thus, the objective of this research was to explore the school management practices, leadership styles, challenges encountered and the future goals of principals in response to the pandemic in the Philippines school context.

Leading schools in times of crisis

Many crises strike without notice (Coomb, 2014). Some can be addressed quickly, while others can take a long time to settle (Smith and Riley, 2012). The tension lies in the lack of information and solutions to problems, or in trying to determine which tactics to employ in times of crisis (Fotheringham et al., 2021). During the pandemic, principals are confronted with tough decisions to make to provide assurance, hope and transparency to anxious parents who are very concerned about their children's education (Weiner et al., 2021). Principals must instil trust in their school communities so that they can ride through these turbulent times (Reid, 2021).

Smith and Riley (2012) contended that a crisis is a major test of school leadership that requires the principal to act quickly and decisively. School principals need to constantly deal with unfolding events, the fluctuating emotions of school communities, and to minimise unwanted consequential effects (Coomb, 2014). Such dilemmas cannot be avoided, and leaders need to be resilient in order to understand and shoulder responsibilities, and make unconventional decisions to address such an unprecedented situation. They must be quick to ascertain the problem, and how it is connected to the bigger picture (Stone-Johnson and Miles Weiner, 2020).

In Nigeria, the complex and sudden change resulting from the COVID-19 crisis has led to confusion, chaos and helplessness (Gyang, 2020). The pandemic also exacerbated the already existing digital divide in countries like India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Nepal and Afghanistan (Mathrani et al., 2021). On the contrary, in developed nations like Sweden, schools remained open (as compared to neighbouring countries like Norway and Denmark), but their school principals faced tensions and anxiety from parents, staff members and students (Ahlström et al., 2020). School principals need to be more intuitive, resilient, creative, agile and authentic in their sets of leadership attributes (Weiner et al., 2021). As new scenarios unfold, they must be flexible, foresightful and courageous to take risks (Reid, 2021).

For countries like Singapore, their preparation in home-based learning was their cornerstone to ride through the storm of the COVID-19 pandemic. Countries around the world engaged strong governance in combating the virus, and ensuring cases remain low throughout the outbreak (Abdullah and Kim, 2020). However, they too, are confronted with challenges during the pandemic in the aspect of digital transformation. Studies have reckoned the need for principals to think of a more sustainable approach especially in the aspect of managing the barriers associated with technology curriculum integration because of: (a) lack of resources; (b) varied perceptions on how their students are engaged through their teachers and (c) inadequate alignment between central agencies and local partnerships (Hung et al., 2020).

There are studies that have highlighted that the principals are committed to fostering new relations and integration with school communities to withstand the effects of prolonged school closures (Stone-Johnson and Miles Weiner, 2020; Weiner et al., 2021). Their initiatives include expanding new networks, knowledge and resources, involving more collaborative decision making with stakeholders, generating new unconventional ideas, and taking risks that would lead towards a community-based model of leadership (Adams, Ng and Muniandy, 2020; Reyes-Guerra et al., 2021). The benefits are considered numerous, and among them: (a) the ability to influence active participation in the provision of education; (b) creating opportunities for students of low socioeconomic background to have access to education and (c) proper mobilisation of resources, and solutions from collaborative strategic and critical thinking (Gyang, 2020).

In the Philippines, Guiamalon et al. (2022) reported four main types of coping mechanisms used by the public secondary school principals in the process of adjusting to the new norm: flexibility and creativity, cooperation among teachers, following instructions from the Department of Education (DepEd), and having community linkages. A study also found that school leaders have a very high degree of resilience due to the communication and emphasis on school community health matters. As such, there was constant feedback, support and monitoring to ensure the high quality of education is achieved (San Miguel and Pascual, 2021). Francisco and Nuqui (2020) found that school administrators in the Philippines were committed instructional leaders, maintaining their capacity to change, while taking on more responsibilities in managing curriculums, budgeting, and scheduling classes.

While schools are reopening and operating under new norms, some principals have to muddle through the scene, stay vigilant, and be quick to respond to unwarranted situations (Weiner et al., 2021). Leadership has also shifted from a centralised manner to distributed forms of leadership because the old norm could no longer fit its present purpose (Harris and Jones, 2020; Thien and Adams, 2021). As such, principals require support and collaboration from all staff to stay engaged in crisis management. School leaders need to be realistic, and resign to the fact that the old normal may not return, and they must live in times of adaptations, and uncharted systemic reforms (Harris, 2020). They may have to evolve alongside the virus, and learn to live with the pandemic as long as it remains a clear and present danger.

Methodology

This study employed a qualitative research approach using an open-ended online survey. Qualitative surveys can produce rich and complex accounts of participants’ subjective experiences, positionings and discourses (Braun et al., 2021), with the primary goal being not to generalise, but rather to provide a rich, contextualised understanding of an aspect of human experience (Hennink and Kaiser, 2021; Polit and Beck, 2010). The limitations of open-ended questions in providing any causal explanations are fully acknowledged (Krosnick and Presser, 2010). Therefore, the findings of this study are indicative rather than definitive. In this study, the survey was self-administered with questions presented in a fixed and standard order to all participants.

In ensuring that this research followed ethical standards, letters were sent to the DepEd. Once approval was obtained, letters were also sent to prospective principals to inform them of the objectives and procedures of the research. Subsequently, after informed consent was received, the principals were administered the online survey consisting of open-ended questions. On the cover of the online survey, the principals were given the choice to either to take part in the research, or otherwise, whereby participation was strictly voluntary, and anonymous. Wu et al. (2022) argued that sending surveys to a clearly defined and refined population positively impacts the online survey response rate. In the case of this study, the participants were school principals who have had administrative experience both before and during the COVID-19 pandemic. Fifty-two principals participated in the study, and the online survey response rate was 100%.

To protect the participants’ identity, codes such as ME1, FE1, MH1 and FH1 were used (M = male, F = female, E = elementary, H = high school, 1 = participants’ number). Questionnaire items were in the English language as it is the official language of the Philippines, spoken proficiently by a large number of Filipinos even in different sectors, and is the medium of instruction in education (Cabigon, 2015). The profile of the 52 principals from Mindanao, Philippines who participated in the survey is shown in Table 1.

Table 1.

Socio-demographic profile of the participants (n = 52).

Characteristic		Frequency	Percentage
Age
	30 years old and below	1	2
	31–40 years old	8	15
	41–50 years old	24	46
	51–60 years old	16	31
	61 years old and above	3	6
Sex
	Female	30	58
	Male	22	42
Highest academic qualification
	Bachelor's degree	4	8
	Master's degree	28	54
	Doctoral degree	20	39
Years of experience as school administrator
	Below 5 years	15	29
	6–10 years	22	42
	11–15 years	9	17
	16–20 years	5	10
	More than 21 years	1	2
Type of school
	Elementary	26	50
	High school	26	50
Location of school
	Rural	26	50
	Urban	26	50

The data analysis utilised the conventional content analysis approach to determine emerging themes. This approach to data analysis is ‘generally used with a study design whose aim is to describe a phenomenon’, and is most appropriate to employ ‘when existing theory or research literature on a phenomenon is limited’. Hence, in this approach, coding categories were derived directly from the text data, ‘allowing the categories and names for categories to flow from the data’ (Hsieh and Shannon, 2005: 1279). This analysis is in consonance with Ryan and Bernard (2003), who stressed that themes can be identified from the data.

Using ATLAS.ti 22 to analyse the data, 41 codes were identified. The basis for determining these emerging themes was the manner by which the research participants put emphasis on the issues, namely, by frequency counts, that aligned with the research objective of this study. This refers to the ‘topics that occur and reoccur’ (Bogdan and Taylor, 1975: 83), and ‘recurring regularities’ (Guba, 1978: 53). An excerpt of the data coding, and the corresponding emerging themes is presented in Table 2.

Table 2.

Excerpt of data codes, sub-themes and emerging themes.

Code/statement	Sub-themes	Theme
The role of a school leader during challenging time is a guide.	Mentors	School Management Practices
Support, encouragement and cheer to the teachers in their achievements.	Mentors
Always look into the safety of all teaching personnel and provide necessary measure for their protection during this challenging time.	Protectors
A COVID shield in which the priority is to protect the teachers and learner.	Protectors
Must be the trailblazer of new opportunities for the teachers to explore…	Trailblazers
Leaders should advance their skills in the use of educational technology…	Trailblazers
Always act as a team.	Distributed Leadership	Leadership Styles
Delegating tasks to teachers.	Distributed Leadership
The Word of God has always been his guide towards achieving the vision and mission of the institution.	Transformational Leadership
Motivate teachers to enrol in graduates’ studies.	Transformational Leadership
The insufficient number of learning materials to meet the need of 1:1 ratio.	Implementation of Self-Learning Modules	Challenges Encountered
Students submit incomplete or unanswered self-learning modules.	Implementation of Self-Learning Modules
Parents that are usually arguing, asking questions and clamouring for face-to-face learning	Poor Parental Support
Parents are forced to tutor their children despite the difficulty of teaching because they themselves do not know what and how to teach.	Poor Parental Support
Teachers must be physically and mentally fit before letting them to start teaching students.	Safety and Well-Being	Future Goals
This can be done by debriefing the students and teachers from the trauma of the COVID-19 grief.	Safety and Well-Being
The poor internet connection, especially to rural areas is a big problem.	Educational Technology Training
Teachers must be trained to be technologically equipped so that they will be adoptive to change.	Educational Technology Training

Findings

Results from the qualitative data analysis led to several themes that kept emerging throughout all the responses regardless of the probing sequence. This section of the article presents the qualitative findings according to the following themes: school management practices, leadership styles, challenges encountered and future goals.

School management practices

School management practices refer to the various strategies, policies, procedures and actions that school principals use to manage and operate schools effectively. These practices are designed to ensure that the school functions smoothly, efficiently and in accordance with its mission and goals (Gorton and Alston, 2018). School management practices in the Philippines during the pandemic took the form of operating schools remotely due to the need for social distancing (Adams et al., 2021). In such a circumstance, school principals acted as mentors, protectors and trailblazers.

Mentors

School principals as mentors refers to the practice of providing guidance, support and professional development opportunities to teachers and staff (Bressman et al., 2018). As mentors, school principals may offer advice, share expertise, provide feedback on performance and serve as role models for others (Searby et al., 2017).

The data showed that as a mentor, the school principals ‘guided teachers and helped them perform their tasks during the pandemic’ (FH4). This means that the school principal needs to be ‘highly competent and knows how to rally their stakeholders’ (MH3) in order to ‘enlighten their teachers about the situation and encourage them to carry out their tasks in order to achieve the school goals’ (ME6). In this way, the school principal provided ‘support, encouragement and injected optimism to the teachers’ (FH15). This is a crucial time for the school principal to lead with compassion as FE5 pointed out, that they ‘lead with a heart, listen with a heart, and decide with a heart’.

The findings showed school principals who serve as mentors played an important role in guiding teacher instructional practices and improving teacher performance. By taking a compassionate and understanding approach to their work, the school principals, in turn, made teachers feel valued and supported in their work. The key findings are presented in Figure 1.

Figure 1.

Key findings under principals as mentors.

Protectors

The concept of school principals as protectors refers to the role that principals play in creating and maintaining safe and secure learning environments for teachers, students and staff (Adams et al., 2021). As protectors, school principals are responsible for implementing policies and procedures that promote physical and emotional safety, such as developing emergency response plans, and addressing issues of bullying and harassment (Naranasamy and Adams, 2020).

The data from the interviews show as a protector, the safety of all in the school was the priority of the principals as ME8 described the situation as ‘always looking into the safety of all teaching personnel and providing necessary measures for their protection during this challenging time’. As such, the school principals was ‘vigilant of their teachers’ welfare’ (ME4). MH7 and MH1 also described the principal's protector role with words such as ‘safety officer’ and ‘covid shield’. By being a protector, the school principal also gave hope to the students and teachers by ‘providing clarity and direction, and instilling hope while remaining focused on the best possible outcomes for the students and the whole school community’ (FH7).

The findings highlights school principals in the Philippines played a critical role in promoting both their teachers and students well-being. The school principals acted as protectors of their teachers’ and students’ physical and emotional safety and created a safe learning environments in their schools. The key findings are presented in Figure 2.

Figure 2.

Key findings under principals as protectors.

Trailblazers

School principals as trailblazers refers to their role in leading innovation and change in learning and teaching. As trailblazers, school principals are responsible for identifying and implementing new and effective teaching strategies, technologies and policies that can improve student learning outcomes (Yuting et al., 2022).

The findings show school principal acted as trailblazers by implementing new ways of learning and teaching. FE1 shared that there were ‘new opportunities for the teachers to explore educational technology so that teachers can cope and impart knowledge and skills to their students during this pandemic’. FE13 added that the school principal ‘advance skills in the use of educational technology to develop innovations and adjustment in the school’. FE8 said that the school principal ‘paved the way for the delivery of quality education in all possible ways that is safe for the teachers and students’.

Despite the uncertainties during the crisis, school principals in the Philippines were innovative and able to think creatively in response to the pandemic. They provided their teachers with the necessary support and resources to implement innovative teaching practices and played a critical role in identifying new and effective teaching strategies and technologies. The key findings are presented in Figure 3.

Figure 3.

Key findings under principals as trailblazers.

Leadership styles

Leadership styles refer to the characteristic ways in which school principals approach their roles and responsibilities (Harris and Jones, 2020). There are several different leadership styles that principals may adopt, however, this is dependent on the school context and the needs of students, teachers and the other school stakeholders (Noman et al., 2018).

Distributed leadership

Distributed leadership refers to the extent to which leadership functions are distributed among formal and informal leadership positions in the leadership team, including the school principal, assistant principals and teacher leaders, rather than relying on the school principal a single leader to make all decisions in the school (Thien and Adams, 2021).

The data showed that the leadership styles practised by the school principals was akin to distributed leadership. FE7 reported the collaborations between the school principal, and the teachers and members of the community. On the other hand, FH11 mentioned that despite numerous challenges faced at such a time, the school principal were ready to act together with the teachers to solve problems. This was enabled by the principals’ leadership style of ‘empowering teachers’ (FH11), ‘delegating tasks to teachers’ (ME5) and ‘connecting to external partners for support’ (MH5).

These insights reveal school principals in the Philippines adopted a distributed leadership style during the crisis and engaged multiple leaders with different expertise, skills and perspectives that contributed to effective decision-making and shared leadership responsibilities. In doing so, the principals created a more collaborative and inclusive school environment. The key findings are presented in Figure 4.

Figure 4.

Key findings under principals distributed leadership.

Transformational leadership

Transformational leadership is a leadership approach that involves inspiring and motivating teachers to achieve a common goal, often by creating a shared vision (Bass and Avolio, 1994). This involves school principals working collaboratively with teachers and other school stakeholders to create a positive school culture and improve student outcomes (Bellibaş et al., 2021).

Most participants shared that their school principals exhibited traits of transformational leadership. Participants of the study mentioned their school principals has ‘good rapport with the teacher and stakeholders’ (FE9), ‘open communication’ (FH10, ME6, FE12, ME7), and practiced ‘active listening’ skills (ME6, FE12, ME7).

These findings indicated school principals in the Philippines had good rapport with their teachers, open communication and active listening. The principals also modelled positive behaviours and encouraged two-way communication with their teachers, showcasing characteristics of transformational leaders. The key findings are presented in Figure 5.

Figure 5.

Key findings under principals transformational leadership.

Challenges encountered

School principals face a variety of challenges in their roles as educational leaders (Adams and Muthiah, 2020). The primary responsibility of school principals during the pandemic is to navigate the uncertainties caused by the COVID-19 crisis. Very often they need to navigate through unprecedented situations, calling upon their ingenuinity and innovativeness as well as critical interpretation of the policies handed down by the local and national authorities.

Implementation of Self-Learning Modules

Like all schools in other parts of the world, the schools in the Philippines needed to be closed to stop the spread of the pandemic. To ensure learning still happened when the schools were closed, the DepEd introduced the Modular Distance Learning programme. In this programme, students could access Self-Learning Modules (SLMs) which were made available to them either online, or at different strategic locations in villages (Fideliz, 2021). With this programme, school principals faced several challenges.

As the principals, teachers and students need to work, teach and learn from their own homes, the first challenge that all parties had to deal with was the poor internet connection, specifically in the rural areas (DepEd, 2020). It was either non-existent, or extremely slow, and in some cases, students had no access to learning as they had no computers, and smartphones were hardly suitable to be used for teaching and learning. This caused the delayed retrieval of SLMs. FH1, FE10 and ME7 remarked that the submission of assignments by students was often delayed. FH5 summed it up: ‘This makes the students and teachers unable to finish their tasks on time’. FH7, FE14, FE16, ME8 and MH3 shared that the distribution of copies of SLMs to certain locations was hampered by limited resources, whereby the DepEd was unable to provide sufficient copies for each student. All these led to a shortage of learning materials. In addition, teachers were neither ready nor skilled in teaching with the use of digital devices as shared by FE1 and FH11, that ‘some teachers are not computer or internet savvy’.

Another challenge was the students’ need for continuous guidance from teachers. Left on their own for most of the time with the SLMs, students often submitted incomplete, or unanswered assignments. FE10 mentioned that this could be attributed to the fact that ‘students are having difficulty in comprehending lessons on their own’. Not only was learning made challenging by the absence of ‘detailed instruction from the teachers’, but also, as FH7 said, ‘due to the actual performances not being observed’. MH12 added that, for science-based subjects, online learning did not provide ‘the observation of a phenomenon in the laboratory’. Such inadequacies of online learning made learning less attractive, and consequently, students lost interest in learning. The key findings are presented in Figure 6.

Figure 6.

Key findings under implementation of self-learning modules.

Poor parental support

Parental support to schools can take many forms and is crucial to the success of students and the school as a whole. By working together with school principals and teachers, parents can help create a supportive learning environment that promotes positive student outcome (Weiner et al., 2021).

Perhaps the most formidable challenge faced by school principals was the parents’ attitude towards their children's learning. According to the Philippine Statistics Authority, the poverty incidence among the population increased to 23.7% during the first half of 2021 from 21.2% in the same period in 2018. This estimates to an increase of 3.9 million Filipinos living in poverty. COVID-19 has taken a heavy toll on the people, specifically on the livelihood of rural communities. The loss of jobs, and thus incomes, and the stress of coping with the COVID-19 restrictions, with its severe economic impact, would inadvertently cause their children's learning to take a back seat.

Furthermore, parents equate effective learning with face-to-face teaching as ME8 shared that ‘parents are usually arguing, asking questions and clamouring for face-to-face learning’. When parents felt that online learning did not bring any benefit, taking their children out of school to work and help put food on the table became inevitable. This means that school principals did not only face the challenge of high absenteeism, but also whether these children would be returning to the schools in the future. Besides, parents were not in a position to tutor their children at home, being uneducated themselves, as informed by FH3, that the parents ‘do not know what and how to teach’.

Under such a circumstance, parents had to make a decision on whether to allow their children to continue with their schooling, or to drop out. In the Philippines, like other developing and low-income countries, the children's perceived educational ability is a key determinant of whether the parents choose to keep them in school, or put them to work instead (World Bank, 2018). Due to the aforementioned COVID-19-induced ineffective schooling environment, the parents’ belief in the power of education to transform lives dwindled. The key findings are presented in Figure 7.

Figure 7.

Key findings under poor parental support.

Future goals

Future goals refers to school principals creating a vision to ensure that their schools continue to provide the best possible learning environment for their students and setting strategies to achieve their goals (Bass and Avolio, 1994; Bellibaş et al., 2021).

Safety and well-being

School principals need to prioritise safety and well-being of their teachers and students to ensure that their schools provide a safe and healthy learning environment (San Miguel and Pascual, 2021). This includes implementing policies and practices that promote safety and health, providing training to teachers and staff, and collaborating with parents (Naranasamy and Adams, 2020).

The data showed that the immediate need is to make the schools safe as FH7 stressed the need to ‘set up a safe school before the opening of face-to-face classes’, and that ‘teachers be physically and mentally fit before letting them to start teaching the learners’. This need goes beyond the normal sanitising standard operating procedure (SOP), and educational achievement. School principals need to look beyond academic instructions, and into the socio-emotional and mental health of students, which is showing early indications of concern. Providing online and/or hybrid teaching and learning methods takes away opportunities to learn through interactions with peers as well as building relationships with adults, and to celebrate the success and milestones achieved.

In planning for the future, FE16 and ME8 emphasised the need ‘to ensure protocols are in place for safe face-to-face learning’. This needs flexibility to change and implement appropriate policies and procedures as new data and information emerge. For learning to take place, school principals need to ensure that students and teachers turn up, and re-engage with learning. The key findings are presented in Figure 8.

Figure 8.

Key findings under safety and well-being.

Educational Technology Training

Educational Technology Training refers to the process of equipping teachers and students with the skills and knowledge needed to effectively use technology in the classroom (Hung et al., 2020). This includes the effective use of computers, tablets, as well as software and applications such as educational games, learning management systems and online resources.

Much discourse from the data revolves around the usage of educational technology. ME6 felt that ‘principals should look into innovative and creative ways to address the various problems faced in the country, such as providing devices that are solar-powered’. ME8 added that ‘teachers need to be trained to use the computers and teach by using the applications available’.

School principals, therefore, need to look into the continuous professional development of teachers so that they are ready to carry out remote teaching for their students to continue learning if and when the next crisis strikes (Adams et al., 2021). The key findings are presented in Figure 9.

Figure 9.

Key findings under educational technology training.

The overall themes and sub-themes are reflected in the model displayed in Figure 10.

Figure 10.

Model of the overall themes and sub-themes of the qualitative findings.

Discussion

This qualitative study aimed at exploring the school management practices, leadership styles, challenges encountered and the future goals of principals in response to the pandemic in the Philippines school context. The current study fulfils the call for studies about how school principals face these challenges that arise from the pandemic, and how they address them in local contexts (Harris, 2020; Harris and Jones, 2020). This final section links the main findings to insights from the literature.

School principals’ management practices in response to the pandemic

The findings show school principals played a critical role in guiding and supporting teachers, ensuring the safety of the school community, and implementing new ways of learning and teaching. Their management practices was the catalyst in ensuring that teachers are able to deliver instructions effectively. Additionally, the principals provided necessary measures for protection, were vigilant of their teachers’ welfare, and gave hope to teachers by providing clarity and direction on online instructions. The school principals acted as trailblazers by implementing new ways of learning and teaching, and made adjustments to ensure that quality education could be delivered in a safe manner. Similarly, Pollock (2020) discuss the importance of school principals prioritising the well-being of the teachers and learners, and at the same time, making sure learning is still taking place.

The finding that school principals led with compassion is particularly noteworthy. As Netolicky (2020) highlighted, principals must communicate the organisation's direction while considering the well-being of its constituents with empathy and humanity. School principals in this study listened to the needs of their teachers and made decisions based on a consideration of their well-being, in addition to achieving the student learning goals. Principals maintained an instructional role, but were emotionally literate above and beyond their duties to implement DepEd mandates, such as safety measures (Francisco and Nuqui, 2020).

Van der Vyver et al. (2014) stressed that the managerial role of school principals has shifted towards a more caring and supportive role. Gray (2009) argued that intelligent leaders are those who are able to discern the emotions of the people around them. The pandemic caused a paradigm shift among school principals in the Philippines from being a traditional authoritative figure in schools towards a more empathic role.

School principals’ leadership styles during the crisis

The results indicate that school principals adopted a distributed leadership style during the crisis worked together with teachers to solve problems, which empowered teachers to take on responsibilities and tasks that were traditionally held by the principal. Additionally, the school principal sought external support when necessary to address issues that were beyond their expertise. Cranston and Kusanovich (2015) points out that school principals should not lead alone, but needs to involve others, and be ready to accept new ways of looking at leadership roles in schools, such as involving teachers in the decision-making process. Leadership in times of crisis has shifted to distributed forms of leadership because the old norm could no longer fit its present purpose (Harris and Jones, 2020; Thien and Adams, 2021).

Furthermore, school principals exhibited traits of transformational leadership by inspiring and motivating teachers to work towards a shared goal. The principals had good rapport with teachers and stakeholders, were open to communication, and practiced active listening skills. This finding echoed other similar studies, particularly Menon (2023) study that found school leaders utilised practices and behaviours associated with transformational leadership in order to manage the crisis effectively at the school.

Challenges encountered during the pandemic

Principals faced various challenges during the pandemic. Among the key challenges were poor internet connection, lack of teacher preparedness, skill in using digital devices and, absence of detailed instructions from teachers that resulted in students being left to navigate the online learning on their own.

Moreover, the most significant challenge faced by school principals during the pandemic was the parents’ attitude towards their children's learning. Parents equated effective learning with face-to-face teaching and were not fully convinced that online learning was a viable alternative. These findings resonated with the literature in which school principals faced challenges during the pandemic in terms of parents negative perception on online learning, poor internet connectivity, and teachers lack of skills in using technology for teaching (Adams et al., 2021; Ahlström et al., 2020; Hung et al., 2020).

Future goals for the new normal

The pandemic has put the country's learning behind by many years, causing tremendous loss in terms of the economy, and global growth (World Bank, 2020). It has also taken a huge toll on students’ academic progress. Hence, school principals need to respond to multiple horizons to facilitate students’ recovery and beyond. Under such a bleak forecast, they need to prepare for the new normal, and get their schools pandemic-ready for the future.

The qualitative results suggest that the safety of students and teachers is a top priority for school principals, particularly during the endemic phase. School principals were found to be taking proactive measures to ensure that schools were safe for face-to-face learning. This included setting up safety protocols and ensuring that teachers were physically and mentally fit to resume teaching in-person (Pollock, 2020).

Teachers’ inability to conduct lessons via technology has received much criticism despite other factors possibly being the reason, such as poor internet connectivity, and the unpreparedness for the sudden onslaught of the pandemic. Nevertheless, much can be done on this front. Teachers need continuous professional development so that they are ready to carry out remote teaching for their students to continue learning if and when the next crisis strikes (Adams et al., 2021). Additionally, school principals have to generate hope for the children returning to school, and obtaining an education in the new normal (Cahapay, 2021; Guiamalon et al., 2022).

Conclusion

The findings of this study contribute to the scarce knowledge base on school leadership during a pandemic by providing unique insights into the Philippines. The Philippines is one of the very few countries in the world where schools have continuously remained closed since the pandemic (United Nations Children's Fund, 2022). Being the first study of this nature conducted in the Philippines, it has contextual originality. The study highlights evidence based on school management and leadership practices during a pandemic that both describes and analyses how school principals face the challenges that arise from the pandemic, and the future goals for the new normal.

One thing that the COVID-19 pandemic has clearly taught school principals in the Philippines is that they do not and should not be alone in dealing with crises. Principals had to shift the traditional hierarchical top-down relationship to a horizontal school–community relationship. With the assistance and involvement of their teachers, communities and school authorities, they can work in unison to address the challenges posed by the crisis and get their schools prepared for the new normal and, pandemic-ready for the future. Additionally, school principals are now more responsive to the teachers’ socio-emotional needs, and have repositioned their schools to reflect ‘caring institutions’ (Noddings, 2015).

It is important to build upon this study in other regions of the world to determine the context-specificity of empirical findings. It is time for this knowledge base to receive greater attention and focus from practitioners and local policymakers, especially in leadership preparation and development programmes for school principals ship.

Footnotes

Declaration of conflicting interests

The author(s) declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.

Funding

The author(s) received no financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.

ORCID iDs

Donnie Adams

Kenny S.L Cheah

Author biographies

Sarah O Namoco is currently the chairperson of the Department of Technical and Technology Education in the University of Science and Technology of Southern Philippines, Cagayan de Oro City. Prior to joining the university, she worked as a secondary school teacher in the Department of Education. She finished her Doctor of Education from the Universiti Sains Malaysia.

Donnie Adams obtained his PhD in Educational Leadership from Universiti Malaya under the Bright Sparks scholarship and was awarded the Universiti Malaya's Excellence Award 2016: PhD Completion in Less than 3 years. He was recently awarded the Emerald Young Researcher Award 2021 and Universiti Malaya's Excellence Award in 2019. His research and development work interests are in inclusive school leadership and school-wide reformation of inclusive education agenda in Malaysia.

Ashley Yoon Mooi Ng is an associate professor in Education, and the interim head of School for The School of Education and English in the University of Nottingham Ningbo, China. She sits as an advisor in the International Council of Global School Leadership, and a Senior Research Fellow at the University of Nottingham, Malaysia. Her research interests are in innovative talent development for the future, teacher professional development, school leadership development, mentoring, and gender and leadership.

Kenny SL Cheah is currently the chair of CRELAMP (Center for Research in Educational Leadership, Administration, Management and Policy) based in the Faculty of Education, University Malaya. He teaches, writes, and publishes in the subjects of Educational Leadership & Management, He is also a senior certified trainer with ATLAS.ti.

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